Hello,
I installed aptosid 2011-02 on a computer with a Realtek 8111E onboard network card and aptosid install program and fw-detect did not correctly detect and install it.
The wrong driver module was loaded, r8169.
It should be r8168. The NIC works intermittently and horribly with the wrong driver. Unusable.
I downloaded the correct driver from Realtek site and installed. it's very easy.
The aptosid manual should also be modified, to correctly inform the users.

r8168 devices are supported by the r8169.ko module in linux, which is actively maintained by RealTek and with community support mainline. The r8168.ko vendor driver is not supported (neither mainline nor by us) and has a huge potential to break your system in ways not easily repairable. Therefore fw-detect is right, even though not all devices driven by r8169.ko actually need a firmware image.

If there are problems with r8169.ko and your device, they'll need to get debugged and fixed mainline.

sagerian

Post subject: RE: hw-detect doesn Posted: 21.10.2011, 19:41

Joined: 2010-09-13
Posts: 5

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Thank you for your answer.
If I understood it rightly, the r8168 driver is made by Realtek, open source, but not supported?
The r8169 is also made by Realtek (the vendor), open source, but supported? Only it does not support my card...
This can't be right, it's very confusing.
Anyway, how should I address to, to solve this problem?

slh

Post subject: RE: hw-detect doesn Posted: 21.10.2011, 20:31

Joined: 2010-08-25
Posts: 953

Status: Offline

#642198 gives a little background, but yes - all you need is r8169.ko. If you encounter problems with r8169.ko and your device, they need to get fixed in r8169.ko.

sagerian

Post subject: RE: hw-detect doesn Posted: 25.10.2011, 15:14

Joined: 2010-09-13
Posts: 5

Status: Offline

Hello.

thank you taking the time to answer me.

For anyone to know, this is how I solved it: a BIOS update from the manufacturer's page.
I saw 2 newer versions than what I had, I updated to the newest, a beta BIOS and...
I get excellent performance now. No interruptions, no slow speed.